PPM

ProjectsAtWork has developed the PPM Software Evaluation Tool, a comprehensive set of questions and parameters for organizations to consider when selecting a project portfolio management solution. And before you make a final decision, make sure you have come to your conclusion with these additional guidelines in mind.

When small and mid-sized companies determine a need for project portfolio management capability, they must take care with four particular areas of potential risk, including trying to implement it in one phase; ignoring current business and resource realities; valuing automating over knowledge; and glossing over the importance of training.

Many organizations make the mistake of not including support work in their portfolio management process. By prioritizing non-project work in the same way you do projects, additional resources can often be freed up for those important, transforming initiatives.

When prioritizing a portfolio of projects and other IT activities, you can improve the decision-making process by grouping work requests from various department and categorizing them according to general business needs and benefits. Here are some basic guidelines.

Gut-feel or anecdotal evidence is not sufficient in determining how your portfolio is performing. The process of defining, capturing and analyzing meaningful metrics can be difficult and time-consuming, but the effort can improve work processes and communication with management. Here is a list of fundamental metrics to get started.

When business conditions and priorities change, the approved work within your project portfolio will likely change as well. Here are some common scenarios that require new courses of action, and suggestions for integrating the work changes into your portfolio.

In choosing which projects deserve scarce resources and which can wait, business cases, built on a common set of documentation, can help organizations better compare potential benefits and value, estimated costs and risks. Here is a checklist of information that should be included when building a common business case template.

Done right, project portfolio management can do a lot of good for any organization. But it’s not easy, as many companies, large and small, have discovered. In this new series, we focus on the fundamentals, starting with why you should consider PPM in the first place, and how to set the stage for a successful implementation.

Project portfolio management is fundamental to coordinating the change, innovation and collaboration necessary to achieve an organization’s strategic vision — its desired "future state." It starts with taking individual projects out of their “isolation” and going beyond traditional measures of success.

Innovation happens during private "head-slapping" moments and "what-if" discussions. Companies that want to capture spontaneous idea-generation, and empower the people who can leverage those ideas as projects, are increasingly using portfolio management tools and techniques.